Laterals/Hiring

December 02, 2013

Sidley Austin has added Raymond Atkins, former general counsel of the Surface Transportation Board, as a partner in the firm's Washington office and a member of its transportation practice.

Atkins has 10 years of experience at the board, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, including the last three as general counsel. He left the agency on Oct. 31.

As general counsel, Atkins defended the agency in appeals and counseled board members on transportation regulations, antitrust, federal preemption and administrative law. The agency has jurisdiction over railroad rate and service issues and rail mergers and other transactions. The agency also oversees some trucking and moving van companies, ocean shipping and intercity passenger bus companies, and pipelines not regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

November 27, 2013

Broadcasting behemoth Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has snagged a Federal Communications Commission aide to serve as its chief lobbyist in Washington.

Rebecca Hanson, who focused on broadcast spectrum issues at the FCC Media Bureau, will join Sinclair on Jan. 2 as senior vice president for strategy and policy, the Hunt Valley, Md.-based operator of 164 television stations announced Tuesday. She will oversee a new D.C. office that will concentrate on policy and business matters for Sinclair.

Efforts to reach Hanson for comment weren't immediately successful. But in a written statement released by Sinclair, Hanson said she is "excited" to come to the company.

November 26, 2013

Only weeks after a prominent corporate lawyer left O'Melveny & Myers for Morrison & Foerster in Washington, another has followed suit.

Scott Lesmes joins Morrison & Foerster as a partner in the firm's corporate finance practice, the firm announced Monday. He follows partner Martin Dunn, who moved to the firm earlier this month.

Lesmes previously was a senior counsel in the capital markets practice of O'Melveny, which he joined in 2009. He also was chief legal officer for Allied Capital Corp. and deputy general counsel for Fannie Mae.

November 21, 2013

Neil MacBride, the former U.S. attorney for Eastern District of Virginia, is joining Davis Polk & Wardwell's Washington office as a partner, the firm said today.

After four years overseeing high-profile investigations and prosecutions of government leakers, terrorists and corrupt public officials, MacBride will put that experience to use on the other side of the courtroom as a member of the firm's white-collar defense and government investigations practice.

"At sort of a macro level, I always regarded it as one of the world's great law firms," MacBride said in an interview today. "It's a place I've respected from afar." He said the firm partnership voted him in this week but he won't start until early next year.

November 19, 2013

Renouncing any further political ambitions, former U.S. senator and two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has returned to the practice of law, confident that potential clients and juries will look past the personal transgressions that pushed him from public life.

Edwards is joining forces with his daughter Cate and former law partner David Kirby to launch EdwardsKirby, a plaintiffs firm with a public interest focus.
One of the most successful trial lawyers in North Carolina history, Edwards, 60, said Monday in an interview with The National Law Journal that practicing law is "what I was born to do."

His image was tarnished by a very public sex scandal, when in 2008 he fathered a child by his then-mistress Rielle Hunter while his wife Elizabeth was battling breast cancer. Edwards, whose wife died two years later, initially denied paternity, going along with a claim that an aide fathered the child—details that were re-aired in a federal campaign finance prosecution against him and a pair of tell-all books.

The question is, will juries hold his misdeeds against him? Edwards said he didn't think so.

November 15, 2013

Patton Boggs managing partner Edward Newberry told The Am Law Daily on Thursday that his firm's decision to conduct another round of layoffs and engage in preliminary merger talks with Locke Lord are part of broader strategy that also includes revamping the firm's long-standing "eat what you kill" compensation system and a push to expand in California, New York, Texas and abroad.

Newberry, who assumed leadership of Patton Boggs in 2010 from former managing partner Stuart Pape, confirmed previous reports by Reuters that the firm is in the "due diligence" stage of discussions with Locke Lord. Patton Boggs partners were informed of the talks at an October partners meeting.

While no letter of intent has been signed, a memo written by Newberry this week updating Patton Boggs partners on a range of issues—which Reuters first reported on—notes that Wells Fargo, accounting firms Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and legal consultant The Zeughauser Group have been retained to evaluate the merits of a union with Locke Lord.

In the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Am Law Daily, Newberry notes that Deloitte is advising the firm on pensions and benefits issues, while PwC and Wells Fargo are conducting a financial analysis. Dallas-based Patton Boggs investment funds partner Jeff Cole and Washington, D.C.–based litigation partner Charles “Rick” Talisman, who was recently named the firm's general counsel, are leading the internal team conducting due diligence on the potential Locke Lord deal.

Legal Times affiliate The Am Law Daily has the story here. Contact Brian Baxter at bbaxter@alm.com.

November 12, 2013

Aaron Cooper, a senior aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democrats, has left Capitol Hill for Covington & Burling, bolstering a burgeoning intellectual property niche in the firm's lobbying group.

Cooper, the Senate panel's chief counsel for IP and antitrust law, will join Covington on Dec. 9 as of counsel to the firm's global public policy and government affairs practice, the firm said today. Cooper started at the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2006, rising to chief counsel for IP and antitrust law in 2011.

Covington partner Dan Bryant, chairman of the firm's public policy and government affairs practice, called Cooper a "remarkable addition." Since March, Covington has hired former Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), former Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and former House Judiciary Committee staff director and chief counsel Richard Hertling, all of whom have significant IP policy experience.

November 11, 2013

After almost 20 years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and six years at O'Melveny & Myers, Martin Dunn is moving to Morrison & Foerster in Washington.

Dunn joined Morrison & Foerster as a partner in the firm's corporate finance practice, the firm announced Monday. He previously was a partner in O’Melveny’s capital markets practices, after stepping down as the deputy director of the SEC Division of Corporation Finance in 2007. He started at the SEC in 1998.

"It was just a perfect fit," Dunn said of joining Morrison & Foerster.

900 Jobs: The legal industry shed 900 jobs in October, The Am
Law Daily reports. The drop followed three straight months of gains.

17 Votes: Republican Mark Obenshain was ahead
of Democrat Mark Herring by 17 votes in the race for Virginia attorney general
Sunday night, The Washington Post reports. More than 2.2 million votes were
cast.

$864 Million: The U.S. Justice Department is looking for Bank of
America Corp. to pay about $864 million for money the U.S. government lost
after it purchased Countrywide Financial loans during the housing boom, The
Associated Press reports.